This guide may be used to design an introductory or survey course, seminar or session for undergraduate or graduate level students or a specialized public. The sources are drawn from English (and French) written materials and the films are selected among U.S. distributors (with references to French and some African distributors).
I. Description
II. Contextualizing African Women's Cinemas within African Filmmaking Practices
III. Introduction to African Women Cinema Studies: Women's Voices and Cinematic Practices
IV. Women's Stories, Experiences and Realities
V. Theoretical and Critical Practices of Interpretation
Film Criticism, Spectatorship and Visual Representation
Critical voices of women actors
Women's Subjectivity
VI. Themes
AIDS and Africa
Autobiography/Biography
Health and Body Integrity for the Girl-Child and Woman
Identity, Body, Self
Women and the Law
Women, War. Resistance and Peace
VII. Women Organizing
VIII. Visual Representations of African Women in African Films
Adolescence
Bi-raciality/Hybrid Cultures
Childhood
Coming of Age
Dance and Music
Death
Generational Conflicts
Identities
Independent Woman
Mature Women
Out of Wedlock Pregnancy/Family Planning
Polygamy
Prostitution
Religion
Sexuality
Slavery
Society, Politics and the Economy
Student
Women Under Apartheid
Film Links
I. Description
Research, study and criticism that focus on issues that are relevant and representative of African experiences and which concretely and materially affect African women in the diverse areas of the cinema are the foundation of African women cinema studies.
The objective is to introduce students to the evolution of African women in all aspects of the cinema. The study explores the various political, social and cultural roles of African women in the visual media of film, video, television and new media technology. It examines current discourse on gender and its role in cultural policy and development; and provides an understanding of continental and international networks and how they contribute to women's expanding roles in the cinema. In the process, students will be exposed to critical perspectives that examine how African women's contributions in the cinema through pedagogy for mass communication and consciousness-raising are directly related to African development; and how theory and criticism of and by African women engage issues, among others, of identity, subjectivity, the body, and positionality. Finally, the study will explore African women's cinemas as "alternative discourse", as another way of experiencing cinema outside western and masculinist hegemony.
II. Contextualizing African Women's Cinemas within African Filmmaking Practices
Social, cultural and political structures within Africa have direct influences on the role that African women in the cinema define for themselves in this milieu. It is equally important to put in perspective the fact that Africa is a vast continent with many different languages, social and political histories, geographic and demographic specificities, as well as religious and cultural practices. This diversity of African life and experiences implies that there is a plurality of African cinemas. To better understand African women cinematic practices, it is important to contextualize African women's cinema within the larger sphere of African cultural practices in general and African filmmaking practices and infrastructures in particular.
Literature:
Bakari, Imruh. "Introduction: African Cinema and the Emergent Africa." Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema: Audiences, Theory and the Moving Image, ed. June Givanni (London: British, Film Institute, 2000.
Barlet, Olivier. "Femmes et hommes dans les cinémas d'Afrique noire", Africultures, 21 October 2002.
Cham, Mbye. "Introduction". African Experiences of Cinema, ed., Imruh Bakari and Mbye Cham (London: British Film Institute, 1996), pp. 1-14.
Ellerson, Beti. "Introduction", Sisters of the Screen: Women of African on Film, Video and Television. Trenton, New Jersey: African World Press, 2000., pp. 1-14.
Thackway, Melissa. "African Women and Film: On Screen and Behind the Camera," Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film (James Curry David Philip, Indiana University Press), pp. 147-181.
Films
Camera d'Afrique, Ferid Boughedir
Ouaga, Kwate Nee Owoo and Kwesi Owusu
III. Introduction to African Women Cinema Studies: Women's Voices and
Cinematic Practices
What is an African woman's vision, her gaze, her way of seeing and visualizing? As the screen becomes the vehicle for expressing woman/women's experiences and showing her vision of the world, many African women transcend geographies and locations, boundaries are blurred, their positionality goes beyond nationality and country, their identities become multiple as well as fragmented. Their gaze, their imaginaire, are fixed both within and beyond. Since a significant number of the women who are active in filmmaking work in other disciplines as well, they bring an "interdisciplinary" approach to their filmmaking practice and to film criticism discourse. The themes and subjects of their films reflect personal experiences, the search for identity, the demands of financiers, as well as the self-imposed duty to teach, to reveal injustices, and to construct positive images of women and African society in general. Their films and experiences of cinema forge an "alternative discourse" to the many issues of cinema in general as well as African filmmaking practices that have been discussed and theorized.
Literature:
Ellerson, Beti. "Visualizing Herstories: An Introduction to African Women Cinema Studies"
Thackway, Melissa. "African Women and Film: On Screen and Behind the Camera," Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film (James Curry David Philip, Indiana University Press), pp. 147-181.
Film:
Ellerson, Beti. Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema (Women Make Movies)
IV. Women's Stories, Experiences and Realities
Within the various experiences of African cinemas, at the same time diverse, there is a convergence of reasons that African women are drawn to cinema: To transmit knowledge to other women who perhaps have not had the chance to go to school; to contribute to the development of women and Africa in general; to communicate and reveal the problems and issues in African societies; to materialize ones thoughts and to make sure they are clear and communicable; to make sense out of ones surroundings; to correct the negative image Africans have of themselves by trying to portray Africans from the human side. For the purpose of this course, the selected films feature the woman/girl protagonist.
Literature:
Amarger, Michel. "Les images d'Afrique aux féminins pluriels." Festival International de Films de Femmes (Catalogue), 1998, pp. 90-94.
Cham, Mbye. "African Women and Cinema: A Conversation with Anne Mungai." Research in African Literatures (Special Issue: Women as Oral Artists), Fall 1994, pp. 93-104.
Ellerson, Beti. Sisters of the Screen. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2000. Conversations with women filmmakers.
Ellerson, Beti. "Through an African Woman's Eyes: Safi Faye’s Cinema. Françoise Pfaff, ed. Focus on African Film, Bloomington: Indiana University Press, 2004.
Ellerson, Beti. Interview with Anne Mungai, FESPACO, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso, 1997.
Ladd, Florence, C. "Sidet: Forced Exile." Sage No. 1, Summer, 1990. Focus on Salem Mekuria.
Thackway, Melissa. "African Women and Film: On Screen and Behind the Camera," Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film (James Curry David Philip, Indiana University Press), pp. 147-181.
Follow links to other interviews and profiles…
Films:
Raja Amari, One Evening in July
Sue Maluwa Bruce, Forbidden Fruit
Assia Djebar, La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Everyone's Child
Tsitsi Dangarembga, Kare Kare Zvako (Mother's Day)
Safi Faye - Peasant Letters and Selbe
Anne-Laure Folly, Women of Niger and Femmes aux yeux ouverts
Rahmatou Keita, Al’lèèssi…an African Actress
Wanjiru Kinyanjui, The Battle of The Sacred Tree
Flora Mbugu-Schelling, These Hands
Salem Mekuria, Sidet: Forced Exile
Soraya Mire, Fire Eyes
Anne Mungai, Saikati and Saikati the Enkabaani
Fanta Nacro, Bintou
Fanta Nacro, La nuit de la verité/The Night of Truth
Ngozi Onwurah, Monday's Girls
Zulfah Otto-Sallies, Raya
Monique Phoba, Anna from Benin
Bridget Pickering, Uno's World
Ingrid Sinclair, Riches
Apolline Traoré, Sous la clarte de la lune
Zara Yacoub, Dilemme au féminin
Women Actors and Visual Representation
Literature
Ellerson, Beti. Sisters of the Screen. Trenton, New Jersey: Africa World Press, 2000. Conversations with women actors.
Lee, Sonia. "Les Africaines a l'ecran et derriere la camera. Notre Librarie: Revue des literatures du Sud (Cinemas d'Afrique), No. 149, Oct-Dec 2002, pp. 110-113.
Thackway, Melissa. "African Women and Film: On Screen and Behind the Camera," Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film (James Curry David Philip, Indiana University Press), pp. 147-181.
Films:
Ellerson, Beti. Sisters of the Screen: African Women in the Cinema (Women Make Movies)
Keita, Rahmatou, Al’lèèssi…an African Actress (Women Make Movies)
V. Theoretical and Critical Practices of Interpretation
While the majority of published works on theoretical and critical practices of interpretation have focused on the visual representation of women in African films or the interpretation of the filmmakers' cinematic language, there are a few emerging works that draw directly from women's voices and experiences. And more significantly, African women's voices within critical discourse in African cinema are becoming visible.
As researchers, scholars and students in search for critical interpretations of African women in cinema we will note the dearth of sources by African women themselves. And while it is important for others to contribute to this discourse, it should be African women who inform and shape this canon of interpretation. Aminata Ouedraogo and Wanjiru Kinyanjui emphasize the importance of African women in this domain.`
Literature:
Balogun, Françoise. "Visages de femmes dans le cinéma d'Afrique noire." Présence Africaine, no. 153, 1996, pp. 141-150.
Ellerson, Beti. "Visualizing Herstories: An Introduction to African Women Cinema Studies."
Hadj-Moussa, Ratiba. "The Locus of Tension: Gender in Algerian Cinema. Kenneth Harrow, ed. With Open Eyes, Women and African Cinema. Matatu 19, 1997, pp. 45-66.
Harrow, Kenneth. "With Open Eyes, Women of Stone and Hammers: The Problematic Encounter between Western Feminism and Africanist Feminist Filmmaking Practice." With Open Eyes, Women and African Cinema. Matatu 19, 1997, pp. 133-149.
Lee, Sonia. "Les Africaines a l'ecran et derriere la camera.” Notre Librarie: Revue des literatures du Sud (Cinemas d'Afrique), No. 149, Oct-Dec 2002, pp. 110-113.
Liking, Werewere. "An African Woman Speaks Out Against African Filmmakers." Black Renaissance/Renaissance Noire, Fall 1996, pp. 170-.
Petty, Sheila. "Black African Feminist Filmmaking?" African Experiences of Cinema, ed. Imruh Bakari and Mbye Cham (London: British Film Institute, 1996), pp. 185-193.
Petty, Sheila. "Miseria: Towards an African Feminist Framework of Analysis." Iris (New Discourses of African Cinema/Nouveaux discours du cinéma africain), special editor, N. Frank Ukadike, no. 18, Spring 1995, pp. 137-145.
Petty, Sheila. "La representation des femmes dans le cinema africain. Films d'Afrique, ed., Michel Larouche (Montreal: Guerinica, 1991), pp. 137-145.
Reid, Mark A. "Dialogic Modes of Representing Africa(s): Womanist Film." Cinemas of the Black Diaspora: Diversity, Dependence and Oppositionality, ed. Michael T. Martin (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1995), pp.56-69.
Thackway, Melissa. "African Women and Film: On Screen and Behind the Camera," Africa Shoots Back: Alternative Perspectives in Sub-Saharan Francophone African Film (James Curry David Philip, Indiana University Press), pp. 147-181.
Film Criticism, Spectatorship and Visual Representation
Literature:
Barlet, Olivier, "La représentation de la femme dans les cinémas d'Afrique noire"
Africultures, 3 November 2004.
DeLuca, Laura and Shadrack Kamenya, "Representation of Female Circumcision in Finzan, A Dance for the Heroes." Research in African Literatures (Special Issue: African Cinema), Fall 1995, pp. 83-86.
Diop, Baba. "Ousmane Sembene, The Suburb of Women" by Baba Diop. Sembene talks about his film "Fat Kine." Ecrans d'Afrique, no. 24, 2nd quarter, 1998, p. 91.
Ellerson, Beti. "Female Body as Symbol of Change and Dichotomy: Conflicting Paradigms in the Representation of Women in African Film." Kenneth Harrow, ed. With Open Eyes, Women and African Cinema. Matatu 19, 1997, pp. 31-44.
Harrow, Kenneth. "Division, Disunity, Disturbance, and Difference: Safi Faye's Mossane and the Challenge of Postmodern Feminism. Less Than One and Double: A Feminist Reading of African Women's Writing. (Portsmouth, NH: Heinemann, 2002), pp. 247-276.
Kindem, Gorham H. and Martha Steele. "Women in Sembene's Films." Jump Cut, May 1991, pp. 52-60.
Mahoso, Tafataona. "Unwinding the African Dream on African Ground." Focus on subtopic: 'The Sad Case of the Film Flame in Zimbabwe'; 'What the Flame Debacle demonstrates', 'My views as an Observer and Member of the Potential Audience.' Symbolic Narratives/African Cinema: Audiences, Theory and the Moving Image, ed. June Givanni (London: British, Film Institute, 2000.
David Murphy. “Mothers, Daughters and Prostitutes: The Representation of Women in Sembene’s Work” Imagining Alternatives in Film and Fiction. James Currey and Africa World Press, 2000.
Parson, Neil. Film Review of "The Life and Times of Sara Baartman, the Hottentot Venus. Published by H-SAfrica-H-Net.msu.edu, December 2001.
Pfaff, Françoise. "Sarraounia: An Epic of Resistance: Interview with Med Hondo." Women with Open Eyes, Women and African Cinema, ed., Kenneth W. Harrow. Matatu 19, 1997, pp. 151-158.
Pfaff, Françoise. "Three Faces of Africa: Women in Xala." Jump Cut, July 1982, pp. 27-31.
Pfaff, Françoise. "Eroticism and Sub-Saharan African Films." African Experiences of Cinema, ed., Imruh Bakari and Mbye Cham (London: British Film Institute, 1996), pp. 252-261.
Ukadike, Frank Nwachukwu. Black African Cinema. (Berkeley: University of California Press, 1994), pp. 54-56.
Zacks, Stephen A. "A Problematic Sign of African Difference in Trinh T. Minh-ha's Reassamblage." Women with Open Eyes, Women and African Cinema, ed., Kenneth W. Harrow. Matatu 19, 1997, pp. 3-16.
Critical voices of women actors
Literature:
Ellerson, Beti. Sisters of the Screen, Africa World Press, 2000. Interviews with Hélène Maïmouna Diarra, M'bissine Thérèse Diop, Alexandra Duah, Aï Keïta-Yara, Amssatou Maiga, Thembi Mtshali, Naky Sy Savane.
Emiliano. "La nudité dans le cinéma africain: Quand le nu chasse le beau." Amina, no. 253, May 1991, pp. 30-32. African women talk about nudity in African films: Hanny Brigitte Tchelley, Ivory Coast-Actress; Carmen Levry, Ivory Coast-Actress; Tassoum Lydie Doual, Chad-Sociologist; Mariam Yago, Burkina Faso-Actress. Text in French
Lee, Sonia. "Les Africaines a l'ecran et derriere la camera. Notre Librarie: Revue des literatures du Sud (Cinemas d'Afrique), No. 149, Oct-Dec 2002, pp. 110-113.
Speciale, Alessandra. "A Threefold Trial: African, Female and Actress." Portrait of Naky Sy Savane, Ivory Coast and Félicité Wouassi, Cameroon. Ecrans d'Afrique, no. 7, 1st quarter, 1994, p. 24.
Women's Subjectivity
Literature:
Ellerson, Beti. "Visualizing Herstories: An Introduction to African Women Cinema Studies."
Mukora,Wanjiku Beatrice. Disrupting Binary Divisions: Representation of Identity in Saikati and Battle of the Sacred Tree. Master's Thesis, McGill University, Montreal, 1999.
Nwachukwu, Frank Ukadike. "Reclaiming Images of Women in Film from Africa and the Black Diaspora." African Experiences of Cinema, ed., Imruh Bakari and Mbye Cham (London: British Film Institute), 1996, pp. 194-208.
Films
The selected films reflect diverse experiences of women as the filmmakers (women and men) give agency to their characters in the case of fiction films, or in their documentaries show women as agents of change, resistance and struggle. While decisions that some of the women make may appear superficial or reactionary, the films provide a point of departure in discourse on women's subjectivity as well as complicity in their own oppression. In other cases women go within themselves as they search for answers and solutions that will make a difference in their own lives and the lives of the community. In the selected films women play both lead and supporting roles.
Al’lèèssi…an African Actress, Rahmatou Keita
And Still I Rise, Ngozi Onwurah
Adanggaman, Roger Gnoan M'Bala
Anna from Benin, Monique Phoba
Bintou, Fanta Nacro
Ceddo, Ousmane Sembene
Dilemme au féminin, Zara Yacoub
Dreams of a Good Life, Bridget Pickering
Emitai, Ousmane Sembene
Everyone's Child, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Faraw! Mother of the Dunes, Abbdoulaye Ascofaré
Femmes aux yeux ouverts, Anne-Laure Folly
Forbidden Fruit, Sue Maluwa Bruce
Finzan, Cheick Oumar Sissoko
Fire Eyes, Soraya Mire
Harvest 3000 Years, Haile Gerima
Hyenas, Djibril Diop Mambety
Kare Kare Zvako (Mother's Day), Tsitsi Dangarembga
Karmen Gëi, Joseph Gaï Ramaka
Laafi bala, Fanta Nacro
La Noire de… Ousmane Sembene
La Nouba des femmes du Mont Chenoua, Assia Djebar
La Petite vendeuse de Soleil, Djibril Diop Mambety
Le Truc de Konate, Fanta Regina Nacro
La Vie est belle, Ngangura Mweze
Les Enfants du Blanc, Sarah Bouyain
Nha Fala, Flora Gomes
Madame Brouette, Moussa Sene Absa
Mossane, Safi Faye
Monday's Girls, Ngozi Onwurah
Moolaade, Ousmane Sembene
Mortu Nega, Flora Gomes
Ndeysaan, Mansour Sora Wade
Pièces d'identités, Ngangura Mweze
Pour la nuit, Isabelle Boni-Claverie
Puk Nini, Fanta Nacro
Rupture, Najwa Tlili
Reassemblage, Trinh T. Min-ha
One Evening in July, Raja Amari
Quartier Mozart, Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Raya, Zulfah Otto-Sallies
Riches, Ingrid Sinclair
Saaraba, Amadou Seck
Saikati, Anne Mungai
Saikati the Enkabaani, Anne Mungai
Sambizanga, Sarah Maldoror
Sankofa, Haile Gerima
Sarraounia, Med Hondo
Sia the Myth of the Python, Dany Kouyate
Selbe, Safi Faye (Women Make Movies)
Shouting Silent, Renee Rosen and Xoliswa Sithole
Sidet, Salem Mekuria (Women Make Movies)
Si-Gueriki (Queen Mother), Idrissou Mora Kpai
Sofie's Homecoming, Richard Pakleppa, Producer: Bridget Pickering
Sarah Maldoror ou la nostalgie de l'utopie, Anne-Laure Folly
Sous la clarté de la lune, Apolline Traoré
Taafa Fanga, Adama Drabo
Tableau Ferraille, Moussa Sene Absa
The Battle of The Sacred Tree, Wanjiru Kinyanjui
The Blue Eyes of Yonta, Flora Gomes
The Body Beautiful, Ngozi Onwurah
The Desired Number, Ngozi Onwurah
The Life and Times of Sara Baartman - "The Hottentot Venus", Zola Maseko
These Hands, Flora M'mbugu-Schelling
Through the Eyes of My Daughter, Zulfah Otto-Sallies
Touki Bouki, Djibril Diop Mambety
Uno's World, Bridget Pickering
Visages de Femmes, Desiré Ecaré
Xala, Ousmane Sembene
Yaaba, Idrissa Ouedraogo
Yeelen, Souleymane Cisse
VI. Themes
AIDS and Africa
Dreams of a Good Life, Bridget Pickering
Everyone's child, Tsitsi Dangarembga
Le Truc de Konate, Fanta Nacro
Shouting Silent, Renee Rosen and Xoliswa Sithole
State of Denial, Elaine Epstein
Steps for the Future - Produced by Day Zero Film
Autobiography/Biography
Al’lèèssi…an African Actress, Rahmatou Keita
Coffee Coloured Children, Ngozi Onwurah
The Body Beautiful, Ngozi Onwurah
Deluge, Salem Mekuria
Fire Eyes, Soraya Mire
La Nuit de la vérité, Régina Fanta Nacro
Les Enfants du Blanc, Sarah Bouyain
Sarah Maldoror ou la nostalgie de l'utopie, Anne-Laure Folly
Hope in My Heart: The May Ayim Story, Branwen Okpak
Through the Eyes of My Daughter, Zulfah Otto-Sallies
Valdiodio N'Diaye, l'Independance du Sénégal, directed by Eric Cloué, produced by Amina N'Diaye Leclerc
Health and Body Integrity for the Girl-Child and Woman
Literature:
Brière, Eloïse A. "Confronting the Western Gaze.Obioma Nnaemeka, ed. Female Circumcision and the Politics of Knowledge: African Women in Imperialist Discourses. Westport CT: Praeger, 2005, pp. 165-180.
DeLuca, Laura and Shadrack Kamenya, "Representation of Female Circumcision in Finzan, A Dance for the Heroes." Research in African Literatures (Special Issue: African Cinema), Fall 1995, pp. 83-86.
Ellerson, Beti. Interview with Zara Yacoub, Sisters of the Screen.
Mekuria, Salem, "Female Genital Mutilation in Africa: Some African Views", (Association of Concerned African Scholars) ACAS Bulletin, Nos. 44/45, Winter/Spring 1995.
Nnaemeka, Obioma, ed. Female Circumcision and the Politics of Knowledge: African Women in Imperialist Discourses. Westport CT: Praeger, 2005.
Research Action and Information Network for the Bodily Integrity of Women
Reportage sur l'avant-première à Montreuil le 26 février 2005
Thiam, Awa. Speak Out Black Sisters. London: Pluto Press, 1986. La Paroles aux negresses, Editions Denoël, 1978.
Films:
Dilemme au Féminin, Zara Yacoub
Fire Eyes, Soraya Mire
Finzan, Cheick Omar Sissoko
Moolaade, Ousmane Sembene
Women With Open Eyes, Anne-Laure Folly
Warrior Marks, Pratibha Parmar ; Exec prod, Alice Walker - This film provides a context to engage the debates around Western feminist perspectives on African cultural practices vs. African realities and African women's perspectives regarding the female body, sexuality, health and culture
Identity, Body, Self
What makes a film African? The setting, dress, behavior, environment or cultural practices of the people portrayed in the film? Or is it the film language and how the story is told. Ngozi Onwurah poses this question as she compares her films The Body Beautiful and Monday's Girls.
Literature:
Ellerson, Beti. Interview with Ngozi Onwurah, Sisters of the Screen.
Stringer, Julian. "On the Rise: The Work of Ngozi Onwurah." CineAction, no. 37, 1995, pp. 38-48.
Films:
The Body Beautiful, Ngozi Onwurah
Fantacoca/Skin Bleaching, Agnes Ndibi
Pour la nuit, Isabelle Boni-Claverie
Monday's Girls, Ngozi Onwurah
Women and the Law
Women as legal advocates have focused on the structural, substantive and cultural components of law and how through advocacy, reform and cultural education, laws may be changed. Making laws that are meaningful and instrumental toward social transformation is necessary for the advancement of women. Some of these areas include, the impact of ethnicity on the status of women, the conflict between public and personal laws, protection laws in domestic violence and divorce and child custody and inheritance rights.
Films
The Whisper, Prudence Uriri
Neria, Godwin Mawuru
Women, War, Resistance and Peace
Women War and Peace Website
Literature:
UNIFEM. Women, War and Peace (pdf download)
Ellerson, Beti.
Sisters of the Screen interviews with Salem Mekuria, Anne-Laure Folly and Zara Yacoub discussing women, children and war.
Horria Saihi
Interview with Horria Saihi, laureate of the Courage in Journalism Award by the International Women's Media Foundation in 1995. Interview for African Women in Cinema Project, 1997.
Pfaff, Francoise.
Twenty-five Black African Filmmakers. (Westport: Greenwood Press, 1988). The chapter on Sarah Maldoror includes a focus on her role in African liberation struggles.
Sezirahiga, Jadot.
Interview with Sarah Maldoror, Guadeloupe-Director. Ecrans d'Afrique, no. 12, 2nd quarter, 1995, p. 6.
Turshen, Meredeth and Clotilde, Twagiramariya, eds. What Women do in Wartime: Gender and Conflict in Africa, London: Zed Books, 1998.
Films:
Ceddo, Ousmane Sembene
Emitai, Ousmane Sembene
Deluge, Salem Mekuria
La Nuit de la vérité, Régina Fanta Nacro
Les Enfants de la guerre [Children of War], Zara Yacoub
Flame, Ingrid Sinclair
Mortu Nega, Flora Gomes, Guinee-Bissau
Sambizanga, Sarah Maldoror
Sarraounia, Med Hondo
Sidet, Salem Mekuria
Les Oubliees, Anne-Laure Folly
The River Between Us, Maji-da Abdi
VII. Women Organizing
Since the inception of African cinema there has been a female presence, visible in front of the camera, but much slower to show itself behind the camera as well as in other important areas in cinema production. The genesis of an organized movement of African women emerged at the beginning of the 1990s as "women of the image" concretized their desire to come together as a larger force in order to make their interests and needs known.
Literature:
African Women Professionals of Cinema, Television, and Video. "Statement of African Women Professionals of Cinema, Television, and Video, Ouagadougou, Burkina Faso."
Andrade-Watkins, Claire. A Mirage in the Desert?: African Women Directors at FESPACO." Cinemas of the Black Diaspora: Diversity, Dependence and Oppositionality, ed., Michael T. Martin, (Detroit: Wayne State University, 1995), pp. 145-152.
Sama, Emmanuel. "African Cinema in the Feminine: A Difficult Birth Giving." (Summary of the Historical African Women in the Cinema Workshop, FESPACO 1991). Ecrans d'Afrique, no. 1, 2nd quarter, 1992, p. 70.
VIII. Visual Representations of African Women in African Films -
Film listing by theme
Adolescence
Anna from Benin, Monique Phoba
Ca twiste a ponpinguine, Moussa Sene Absa
Childhood destroyed, Zara Yacoub
Dole, Imunga Ivanga
Mossane, Safi Faye
Quartier Mozart, Jean-Pierre Bekolo
Through the Eyes of My Daughter, Zulfah Otto-Sallies
Sous la clarte de la lune, Apolline Traoré
Bi-raciality/Hybrid Cultures
The Body Beautiful, Ngozi Onwurah
Coffee Coloured Children, Ngozi Onwurah
Le Fleuve, Mama Keita
Les Enfants du Blanc, Sarah Bouyain
Pour la nuit, Isabelle Boni-Claverie
Sous la clarté de la lune, Apolline Traoré
Childhood
Harvest 3000 Years, Haile Gerima
Moolaade, Ousmane Sembene
La Petite vendeuse de Soleil/The Little Girl who Sold the Sun, Djibril Diop Mambety
Sous la clarté de la lune, Apolline Traoré
Wend Kuuni, Gaston Kabore
Yaaba, Idrissa Ouedraogo
Coming of Age
Monday's Girls, Ngozi Onwurah
Moolaade, Ousmane Sembene
Dance and Music
Karmen Gëi, Joseph Gaï Ramaka
Death
Den Muso
Harvest 3000 Years
Kare Kare Zvako (Mother's Day), Tsitsi Dangarembga
Karmen Gei
La Jumelle
La Noire de...
Le Wazzou Polygame
Mossane
Sankofa
Generational Conflicts
Djeli
Mossane
Saaraba
Xala
Identities
Coffee Coloured Children, Ngozi Onwurah
Forbidden Fruit, Sue Maluwa Bruce
Les Enfants du Blanc, Sarah Bouyain
Pour la nuit, Isabelle Boni-Claverie
The Body Beautiful, Ngozi Onwurah
Through the Eyes of My Daughter, Zulfah Otto-Sallies
Independent Woman
Bintou, Fanta Nacro
Faat Kine, Ousmane Sembene
Hyenas, Djibril Diop Mambety
Madame Brouette, Moussa Sene Absa
Moolaade, Ousmane Sembene
Karmen Gei, Joseph Gaï Ramaka
Taafa Fanga, Adama Drabo
Mature Women
Ta Dona, Adama Drabo
Yaaba, Idrissa Ouedraogo
Yeelen, Souleymane Cisse
Out of Wedlock Pregnancy/Family Planning
Faat Kine, Ousmane Sembene
Hyena, Djibril Diop Mambety
Madame Brouette, Moussa Sene Absa
Uno's World, Brigitte Pickering
Saaraba, Amadou Seck
Taaw, Ousmane Sembene
The Desired Number, Ngozi Onwurah
Polygamy
Xala, Ousmane Sembene
Tableau Ferraille, Moussa Sene Absa
La Vie est belle, Ngangura Mweze
Saaraba, Amadou Seck
Si-Gueriki (Queen Mother), Idrissou Mora Kpai
Prostitution
Hyenas, Djibril Diop Mambety
Guelwaar, Ousmane Sembene
Religion
My Heart is My Witness (Women and Islam), Louise Carré
Sénégalaises et islam (Senegalese Women and Islam), Angèle Diabang Brener
Note: There are many films that integrate religion and culture, especially in the works of Ousmane Sembene
Also see:
Au nom du Christ, Roger Gnoan M'Bala
Sankofa, Haile Gerima
Sexuality
Mossane, Safi Faye
Puk Nini, Fanta Nacro
Karmen Gëi, Joseph Gaï Ramaka
Forbidden Fruit, Sue Maluwa Bruce
Visages de Femmes, Desiré Ecaré
Slavery
Sankofa, Haile Gerima
Adanggaman, Roger Gnoan M'Bala
Society, politics and the economy
Laafi bala, Fanta Nacro
Kaddu Beykat/Peasant Letters, Safi Faye
Student
Xala, Ousmane Sembene
Faat Kine, Ousmane Sembene
Touki Bouki, Djibril Diop Mambety
Women Under Apartheid
South Africa Belongs to Us, Chris Austin
You Have Struck a Rock, Deborah May
Women and Work
Faraw!
Kadou la bonne a tout faire, Valerie Kabore
La Noire de..., Ousmane Sembene
Mapantsula
Sophia's Homecoming
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